Thu., Dec. 14, 2017
3:45 PM
- 4:15 PM CSTLiveMike Mularkey Press ConferenceWATCH LIVE as Head Coach Mike Mularkey meets with the media following the team's practice, live from Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.

Coach Munchak's Tuesday Practice Report

I think just when it’s the same mistake. Just don’t make the same mistake over and over. I think that’s what you’re seeing with a lot of the veterans. You’re going to see mistakes. You’re adding new things, and you anticipate some issues, and some things do come up. You just don’t want the same guy making the same type of mistakes—going the wrong way day after day and things like that. You don’t want to see a pattern or somebody consistent the wrong way, or in a negative way. We haven’t seen that. You’re going to have that with the younger guys that aren’t getting maybe as many reps. We’re putting things in, but it’s still a relatively decent pace. It’s not overwhelming. You start the first couple days pretty vanilla for the first two, three days, and just kind of add per day. That’s the part I like about this change in schedule, the fact that we have all these OTAs in June, because it seems really like a camp installation. It’s good, but if guys are making mistakes over and over, then yeah, that will become an issue.

The last three workouts pretty much he’s been doing everything, getting his full share. He eased in last week in a couple of the workouts, and so far both practices this week, he’s been doing everything. So we’re feeling good about him, and I’m sure he’ll gain his confidence over a couple more days this week and next week. He’ll still get in some good work.

He’s done well. The thing was, he’s very familiar with that because everywhere he’s been he’s played at least end on some third-down situations and some four-down looks. He’s comfortable that way. We have him on the open side, where he’s very comfortable. He’s a pro. He practices the way you want him to. He’ll rub off on the other guys. You’re already seeing that with his practice habits and his seriousness to the game. His approach to the game is fun to watch. He’s had success, so players lock on to that when they see that. That’s how he’s leading also. We’re happy with what we’ve seen so far. The coaches, I know, are, for what you can get out of this time of year. He’s not one of those guys that’s making many mistakes, and we’re having him do a lot of things. He’s a guy that’s very versatile. We can do different packages with him and get some mismatches with him in pass rush. We’re real happy with his progress so far, and we’ll just kind of wait and see how his camp goes.

(on his recall of the last time the NFL used replacement officials)

I don’t remember it being a huge issue. That was a big concern, but that’s something just like the players were last year—we have no control over it. You hope just like you did last year at this time, you figured you were going to play football. I figure the same way. They’ll be back. They’ll get it worked out, and once we get the games started, then we’ll have the officials here.

(on if there is a curiosity from the coaches how much the young players can handle)

That’s up to coaching. We find that in each guy. I know Chris Palmer has talked about Kendall Wright. We have a plan to start out with him, for example. We have a plan for every guy—the coaches do—and what situation to put him in. So for someone like that, if you see him doing well, then it’s up to us to put more on him and see how versatile he can be and give him more responsibility. Some guys will get bored, and so you want to give him more responsibility. Technique work you can work on all the time. You can always improve that. But assignment-wise, if guys start handling it, like you would o-line or d-line, you can start moving guys maybe to multiple positions because they’re ready for it. The coaches have to have a part in this thing also. If your guy is not looking good, obviously the first thing is, ‘Well, it starts with the coach. What’s going on here? Have we had him do too much? Can he not handle it?’ These are the guys we have, and so we have to find a way to make it work with the guys we have. You can’t say, ‘Well, this guy’s not smart enough.’ That won’t be the problem with the guys we have. It’s a combination of all of that.

(on his charity bowling event and how it got started)

The event was more for something that we can do that is a family event where everybody can bowl. It is not just a male event. We want the families out there to have fun and it is a chance to interact with the players, some of our ex-players, our coaching staff, our front office people in a setting that you normally don’t have. I have done some bowling before and I thought that was probably the most fun. We interact with the fans, we interact with the people that are helping raise money for the event, so that kind of made the bowling part easy. It is something everyone kind of enjoys doing. The other side of it is for diabetes with my wife being diabetic and my mom. When I knew we were going to get involved with something it was easy to decide what charity to get involved in. It is a chance to have a lot of fun, bring more awareness to diabetes and raise money for a good cause and have fun at the same time.

(on his skills as a bowler)

Not bad. I’m not going to speak for it now because I bowled last year when we took the players out and it took me a game to get loosened up. I used to bowl pretty good. When you’re from the Northeast there are a lot of cold nights and snowy days and you do a lot of bowling. I used to have a pretty good average, but again it is once a year so anything is possible.

(on if he uses gutter guards)

I would never admit to that. When I bowled with my daughters, I didn’t mind the fact that they needed them early and I used to try to ricochet balls off of that. I don’t need those now. I can usually hit a pin or two. It will be fun. We took these guys out last year and we will probably do something like that this year. The players love it. There is a lot of energy, so it makes it a little fun. It is a chance to come out and have a great evening. No one has to take work off because it is 6:00 at night when we are starting. You can come out on Thursday night and just have fun. That is the bottom line and at the same time raise money.

(on if the team currently has a bowling champion)

Last year the DBs won it. They had the best team. They are all excited. Griff (Michael Griffin) has his own ball. He is serious, actually all the DBs are. They took it serious last year when we went. We put them all on the same team and they won best team. They got their picture up in the player’s lounge, so they are looking forward to repeating, I guess. We will worry about that in August. This one is more for fun, but they can’t help themselves. We will still have some competition with the best celebrity bowler against the best non-celebrity bowler and do things like that at the end of it to bring a little fun to it, so I’m sure hoping he is that guy.

When I helped recruit him last year we were excited about having him here. We thought he would come in and fit a definite role and need we had. As a first-year head coach, he was great for me. He was a great leader, a great guy by example, he was great in the tight end room and really for the whole team, I thought. Unfortunately, as we all know the way the season went we didn’t run the ball as much as we liked to and he didn’t get the reps he thought he would be able to get originally because obviously we thought we would run the ball much more often than we did last year. He didn’t get an opportunity to play like we hoped he would when we signed him. I know that was disappointing for him last year. This year we drafted Taylor (Thompson) and we have some young guys at the tight end position and it is going to be hard for everyone to get reps. We got to that point where it seemed like it was in the best interest of Daniel and the best interest of the team to kind of give him the opportunity to move on for what we need to do as an offense going forward and for Daniel knowing the chance for him getting a lot of reps was going to be limited. We have some young guys we felt that could compete. That is different when you are going for the third spot. We have had two good tight ends with (Jared) Cook and (Craig) Stevens that have developed and have their roles, so it is harder for that third guy to get a lot of reps, so he has to be more of a special teamer and a guy that can be more versatile. That kind of forced our hand a little bit. We loved his time here and I wish it could have gone on a little differently. He has obviously had a very good career and I’m sure he can go on and play and help someone still this year.

(on if someone will have to step up to fill the blocking tight end role)

We are hoping with the guys we have with (Brandon) Barden and Taylor (Thompson) that one of those guys will develop or Graham Jr., Cameron, that those three guys we’ll be happy from what we have and one of those guys can fit that role.

Once we finish up this minicamp next weekend, they are pretty much on their own to do what they want until camp starts. I’m sure those guys will do those things that they always do as quarterbacks. We will always be very conscious of that. I know Jake is probably going to stay in town, so they can come here but we can’t instruct them, instructs are over until camp starts. You would think them, along with the rest of the team, will find ways to keep in shape, keep their arm in shape and do the things necessary so when we come back we are not behind the eight-ball.